Monday, March 24, 2008

After a couple of months not being able to use my Apple laptop for work, I decided to buy another one. And as usual, I looked hard at PC laptops at the same time. Unlike the last three times, this time I did buy a PC, however. A Dell XPS M1330, as recommended on the Ubuntu website. In Australia, we aren't able to buy this laptop pre-installed with Linux, so I had to get it with Windows Vista.

I took the onboard Intel graphics (not the nVidia), as it's better supported, and the 7200RPM hard disk, with the Intel wireless chipset. All in all, this laptop running Linux has stunned me with how well it works. I haven't bothered trying the onboard camera, but I haven't had to stuff around with anything really. Even when I plug it into the 22" LCD screen at work, it does desktop extension wonderfully.

And that's the thing. They're now 90% as good as a Mac. And in 12 months time when I want a new one, I can hand it on to somebody else at work and get another, because it has a Windows license, and in the meantime I can legally have Windows Vista running in a VMware Server instance for the odd thing I want to do in Windows.

But I haven't defected from the Apple clan - I'm just in exile. I still have my old MacBook as well.